A lot of people who kinda debate the no kill rule of Batman tend to forget that killing people actually has psychological effects that honestly could damage someone's psyche. Obviously some people can handle it better than most but some people just can't handle it well and it could actually break someone down to their core.
I'm saying this now because not only is it a topic that generally never ends but the Supergirl Movie has once more sparked this debate between killing and not killing. And I honestly love the take the Supergirl Movie does with the whole kiling and no killing conflict with how Kara deals with it.
The movie treats killing like how it's meant to be treated. Kara obviously doesn't want a child to be the one who kills someone but the main reason seems to be because she doesn't want that child to bear the weight of that responsibility. (Then Kara kills the big bad lol) The Movie really highlights the argument about using killing to enact justice.
Sure it IS a justified reason to kill someone, but is it something you can handle? Is it something you are strong enough to do? Strong enough to bear the weight of. Kara is the one who ends up going for the kill because she knows she can handle it better than Ruthye who mind you, has never killed anyone before. And the fact that Kara steers her away is because she KNOWS the kind of toll and damage that could do to a person if they cannot handle it well.
And people...had mixed feelings about this argument of course. And even tried to water down what Kara was trying to do in that situation. But the point is that Kara knows that taking a life can be downright traumatizing for some people and there are actually times when people don't really recover from that kind of decision.
And I think a lot about the arguments about killing people in order to do justice not only leans into the far opposite side of Moral Absolutes compared to Batman's Morals and because media has unfortunately made us okay with killing or characters killing people.
I don't mean to be a parent but literally a whole lot of films don't actually delve deep into the psychological effects of killing, how that can damage a person and traumatize them to an extreme degree. There's a reason why a lot of the 'military soldier' characters or people who have sacrificed people for the sake of protecting others often become characterized as cold and numb, because taking a life is something you can never come back from, and sometimes it could cause people to stop feeling empathetic because what's the point of empathizing with life when you're capable of taking it away?
But most films don't delve deep. Heck most of the time killing people is seen as cool to the audience. And that's motly because the plot doesn't really demand we go that deep or because writers don't really want to delve deep into the psychology of it all. (Because they're not paid enough to do that shit unfortunately)
And if some people really can't handle taking a life compared to most, then how well do you think Batman might handle his first kill? (I mean...BTAS...kinda made his robot clone kill himself as a reaction but that's BTAS) How well do you think he might handle killing when most of his trauma stems from the killing of his parents? Why do you think he has such a negative reaction whenever someone kills right in front of him? Why he has such a negative reaction when it comes to Jason killing people?
Ideally everytime I see the debate of Batman's no kill rule not only do I think it's kinda ableist to some degree but I also think that people just have this idea that killing is okay without delving into what it actually means to bear that responsibility.
